Electro-chemical reactors have a variety of uses (e.g., electro-coagulation, electro-phoresis, electrolysis, and electro-plating, among others). Electro-coagulation, for example, is an electro-chemical process that simultaneously removes heavy metals, suspended solids, emulsified organics and many other contaminants from water using electricity instead of expensive chemical reagents. Basically, electro-coagulation uses electricity and sacrificial plates to combine with contaminants in a waste stream, producing insoluble oxides and hydroxides (commonly known as floc) that are easily separated from the clear water.
Electro-chemical processes like electro-coagulation and electro-plating often require a large direct current (e.g., 50-5,000 Amps) at a relatively low amount of voltage (e.g., 50 Volts). The most common way to produce the large direct current is by supplying commercial power (e.g., 120 V, 1 phase or 420 V, 3 phase) to a rectifier. Common commercially-available rectifiers include a transformer to down convert the voltage and increase the amperage, a rectifier, typically composed of a number of diodes, to convert the alternating current signal to a direct current signal, and a filter to smooth the direct current signal.